First results on the search for chameleons with the KWISP detector at CAST

• Published in: Physics of the Dark Universe
• Main Authors: Cuendis, S. Arguedas, Baier, J., Barth, K., Baum, S., Bayirli, A., Belov, A., Zioutas, K.
• Other Authors: İÜC
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2019
• Subjects: Chameleons; Dark energy; Opto-mechanical sensor; Interferometry; Canada; sami
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dark.2019.100367; https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12831/1000

Ozbey, Aydin/0000-0001-7097-4044; Irastorza, Igor G/0000-0003-1163-1687; Karuza, Marin/0000-0002-2646-9427; Maroudas, Marios/0000-0003-1294-1433; Iguaz Gutierrez, Francisco Jose/0000-0001-6327-9369; Solanki, Sami/0000-0002-3418-8449; Baum, Sebastian/0000-0001-6792-9381 WOS:000499696200021 We report on a first measurement with a sensitive opto-mechanical force sensor designed for the direct detection of coupling of real chameleons to matter. These dark energy candidates could be produced in the Sun and stream unimpeded to Earth. The KWISP detector installed on the CAST axion search experiment at CERN looks for tiny displacements of a thin membrane caused by the mechanical effect of solar chameleons. The displacements are detected by a Michelson interferometer with a homodyne readout scheme. The sensor benefits from the focusing action of the ABRIXAS X-ray telescope installed at CAST, which increases the chameleon flux on the membrane. A mechanical chopper placed between the telescope output and the detector modulates the incoming chameleon stream. We present the results of the solar chameleon measurements taken at CAST in July 2017, setting an upper bound on the force acting on the membrane of 80 pN at 95% confidence level. The detector is sensitive for direct coupling to matter 104 <= beta(m) <= 108, where the coupling to photons is locally bound to beta(gamma) <= 10(11). (c) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). NSERC (Canada)Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada; MSE (Croatia); University of Rijeka, Croatia [13.12.2.2.09, 18-126]; EUEuropean Union (EU) [KK.01.1.1.01.0001, RC.2.2.06.-0001]; BMBFFederal Ministry of Education & Research (BMBF) [05 CC2EEA/9, 05 CC1RD1/0]; DFGGerman Research Foundation (DFG) [HO 1400/7-(1-3), EXC-153]; University of Freiburg (Germany); GSRT (Greece)Greek Ministry of Development-GSRT; NSRF: Heracleitus II; RFFR (Russia); Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) - European Regional Development Fund, ERDF/FEDER [FPA2011-24058, FPA2013-41085-P]; European Research Council (ERC)European Research Council (ERC) [ERC-2009-StG-240054]; Turkish Atomic Energy Authority (TAEK)Ministry of Energy & Natural Resources - Turkey; IBS (Korea) [IBS-R017-D1-2017-a00]; U.S. Department of EnergyUnited States Department of Energy (DOE) [DE-AC52-07NA27344] We thank CERN for hosting the experiment and for technical support to operate the magnet and cryogenics. We acknowledge support from NSERC (Canada), MSE (Croatia), University of Rijeka, Croatia with grant no 13.12.2.2.09, 18-126, EU funded projects KK.01.1.1.01.0001 and RC.2.2.06.-0001, BMBF under the grant numbers 05 CC2EEA/9 and 05 CC1RD1/0, DFG under grant numbers HO 1400/7-(1-3) and EXC-153, the University of Freiburg (Germany), GSRT (Greece), NSRF: Heracleitus II, RFFR (Russia), the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) under Grants No. FPA2011-24058 and No. FPA2013-41085-P (grants partially funded by the European Regional Development Fund, ERDF/FEDER), the European Research Council (ERC) under grant ERC-2009-StG-240054 (T-REX), the Turkish Atomic Energy Authority (TAEK) and IBS (Korea) with code IBS-R017-D1-2017-a00. Part of this work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC52-07NA27344.